


Hawaiian Rollercoaster

by eternaleponine



Series: From the Mouths of Babes [15]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Foster Care, Hawaii, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:33:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21806686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternaleponine/pseuds/eternaleponine
Summary: The Griffins take Lexa and Luna along on the Hawaiian vacation they planned to celebrate Jake's recovery from his Christmas health crisis.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Series: From the Mouths of Babes [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/626033
Comments: 48
Kudos: 157





	1. Chapter 1

"All I'm saying is, if people were meant to fly, they would have wings."

Clarke looked over at Luna, whose knee was bouncing, shaking the entire row of seats they were sitting in and earning her irritated looks from their fellow passengers. Clarke nudged Lexa, who reached out and put her hand on Luna's knee, pressing it down to make her stop jittering.

"People fly all the time," Clarke said. "It's actually the safest method of travel." She was pretty sure she'd heard that somewhere; she just hoped Luna didn't demand statistics to back it up. "Much safer than driving."

"Especially when you're the driver," Luna said, shooting her a look. 

"I'm a great driver!" Clarke said. "It's everyone around me who doesn't know what they're doing!" She flashed a grin, but Luna didn't smile back. She was apparently still holding a grudge from the time Clarke had nearly - _nearly_ \- backed the car into her when she was passing on the sidewalk in front of Clarke's house. 

"Can we not have this argument again?" Lexa asked. 

"Do you have something better for us to do?" Luna asked. 

"I might have a coloring book and some crayons in my backpack," Lexa said, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "That always helps the littles pass the time."

"Do you really?" Clarke asked. Luna just flipped Lexa off. 

"No," Lexa said. "I thought about it, though." 

"Pretty sure there's an app for that," Clarke said. "Somehow, I don't think the effect would be quite the same." There was something soothing about carefully filling in outlines with a color of your choosing, making the picture your own even when you knew what it was supposed to look like, the feel of the wax dragging across the paper, the rhythm of it, that tapping on a screen to fill in empty spaces with the color you were told to couldn't provide. It made her wish she'd been able to pack some art supplies, but her parents had been quite insistent that she pack only what she really needed to minimize the number of bags they would need for the trip.

Clarke's dad came back from going to get coffee for himself and her mom. He handed Abby her cup, then crouched down next to Luna's seat. "Everything all right?" he asked her. 

She shrugged. "Fine," she said. 

"You sure?" he asked. "Because you're looking a little green around the gills." Clarke saw his mouth twitch, like he hadn't intended the almost-pun, but was amused by it, given that Luna's love for the water made any comparison to a fish an apt one. 

"Yes," Luna said, the fingers of the hand that Jake couldn't see curling into a fist. 

"All right," he said. "You're braver than I am, then. The first time I flew, I was a wreck. I held Abby's hand so tight, she swore she was going to need an X-ray when we got to our destination." Clarke didn't think that was true – she was pretty sure he'd been on airplanes long before meeting her mother – but it made a good story. "She kept reminding me that the pilots and flight attendants did this every day, just like everyone else goes to work every day, and nearly every single one of them eventually retires, just like everyone else. They probably wouldn't do that if it wasn't safe, right?"

"Probably not," Luna said softly. 

"You're gonna be fine, kid," Jake said. "And if you're not, we'll just give you a bunch of Benadryl and knock you out until we land." He winked, and Clarke grinned. Her mother, on the other hand, didn't look amused. 

They finally boarded the plane, and Clarke slid into the row to claim the window seat. She probably should have asked if Luna wanted it – Lexa would obviously be in the middle seat of the three – but she _always_ got the window, and anyway, if Luna was so freaked out by flying, Clarke doubted she would want to be able to look out and see just how high above the earth they were. 

The preflight safety video began, and Clarke watched Luna out of the corner of her eye. She'd flown enough times that she had the instructions memorized. It was more entertaining – although it probably made her a terrible person to be entertained by it – to watch Luna's face as she questioned all of her life decisions. She tried to be subtle, but Lexa caught her and jabbed her with an elbow. "Leave her alone," she hissed. "She's allowed to be scared." 

"I'm not _scared_ ," Luna said. "I'm—" But she couldn't find the right word to put a positive spin on terror. "I just don't think it's necessary to take unnecessary—" She grimaced, realizing the redundancy of the wording. "I never should have let you talk me into this," she said, crossing her arms and pushing back hard against her seat. "You're going to wish I wasn't there anyway."

"Why would we wish that?" Lexa asked.

Luna rolled her eyes. "Because if I wasn't there, you two would get a room to yourselves," she said. "Instead, I get to be the third wheel, doing whatever the girl-equivalent of cockblocking is. Yay." 

Abby glanced over at them, and Clarke flushed. "Could you maybe keep your voice down?" she hissed. 

"Sorry not sorry," Luna snarked back at her.

"Stop," Lexa said. "Both of you." She looked back and forth between them, glaring. "You're not going to do this the entire trip." 

"Sorry," Clarke said, and she was. It wasn't fair, or kind, to treat Luna as if she was being silly or childish because she was nervous about getting on an airplane for the first time... especially since this wouldn't just be a quick flight down to Disney (like Lexa's first flight had been last summer). Heck, a flight to Europe would be shorter. Just because Clarke had been flying for as long as she could remember didn't mean it wasn't nerve-wracking for someone who had never done it before. 

Luna didn't say anything, because the plane had started to move, and her jaw was clenched so tight it looked like her teeth might crack under the pressure. She had a white-knuckled grip on her armrests, and when Lexa put her hand on her arm to try to calm her, she didn't even appear to notice. 

Clarke finally looked away when she saw actual tears leaking from the corners of Luna's eyes when they began to speed down the runway. She dug around in her bag (even though she was supposed to be seated in a full and upright position) until she found a pocket pack of tissues, slipping them into the seatback pocket in front of Luna before leaning back and minding her own business.

She put in her headphones and listened to music until Lexa finally nudged her and pointed to the screens in front of them. "Want to watch a movie?" she asked. 

"Sure," Clarke said. They scrolled through, finally finding something they could agree on that they hadn't seen before. Lexa brought it up on Luna's screen, too, but her eyes closed. If she didn't still have a death grip on the tissues wadded up in her hand, Clarke might have thought she was asleep. 

They synched up their screens as best they could so they could watch the movie together without one of them getting to the funny or exciting part before the other. About halfway through the movie, Clarke looked over at Lexa, and saw that Luna had finally opened her eyes and put on her headphones and was watching along with them.

The flight attendants finally came by with snacks, which helped pass the time, and when they finished the first movie, they let Luna pick the next, and that was how they got through the longest flight of Clarke's life (literally). By the time they finally began their descent, she was more than ready to be off the plane. Her back hurt, and her butt hurt, and she was really looking forward to using a real bathroom. 

"Almost there," she said, leaning across Lexa to offer Luna some gum. "We'll be on the ground again soon." 

Luna gave a quick nod, accepting the peace offering with shaking hands. She didn't look any calmer during the landing than she had during take-off, but when the plane finally touched down, she managed a crooked half-smile of relief. 

"I don't think my legs unbend anymore," Clarke said when she tried to stand up. "I think they're stuck like this." 

Lexa rolled her eyes, and outright laughed when Clarke kept her hunched, bent-kneed posture as she hobbled down the aisle. "You're fine," she said, poking her. "The sooner you stop pretending to be a little old lady, the sooner we're off this tin can."

It was all the encouragement Clarke needed. She straightened up, grabbed her bag, and made a beeline for the door... or as close to a beeline as one could make when one had to wait for everyone in front of them to wrestle things out of the overhead bins and shuffle them down the aisle.

When they finally stepped off the plane and made their way to baggage claim, Clarke was surprised to discover that there were people waiting there with lei to welcome them to Hawai'i. She'd always assumed that was something that only happened in movies. The cynical – or maybe realistic – part of her was pretty sure that it was something they'd probably had to pay extra for, given that the lei-bearers held signs with names on them, and weren't just giving them to everyone, but watching the way Lexa's face lit up as the flowers were settled on her shoulders made it worth it (especially since she wasn't the one paying for it). 

From there they made their way to their shuttle. Clarke couldn't tear her eyes away from the window, watching the scenery as they made their way from the airport to the hotel. Lexa and Luna crowded against her, but Clarke didn't mind. At their hotel, they were shown to their rooms. 

"We're trusting you," her mother said sternly as she handed them key cards for the room they would share. Her parents would be in an adjacent room, so it wasn't as if they wouldn't be able to keep tabs o them, but Clarke got the feeling that they were looking forward to being able to do things on their own, now that Clarke (and Lexa and Luna) were old enough to be left to their own devices, at least some of the time. "Don't make us regret it."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "We won't, Dr. Abby," Lexa said. Luna didn't say anything, because she had already gone into the room, and straight out to the balcony. After one last warning look from her mother, Clarke and Lexa followed. 

Luna turned to look at them with eyes wide and bright. "Look," she said, pointing to the beach and the waves beyond. "I'm here."

* * *

" _We're_ here," Lexa said, slipping her arm around Clarke's waist and pulling her to her side. "You didn't really believe we'd make it, did you?"

Luna shook her head. "No," she said, her smile slipping away. "I kept expecting something to go wrong."

"But nothing did," Lexa said. 

"And nothing's going to. This trip is going to be amazing," Clarke said. "The only question now is, what the hell are we waiting for?"

With that, Luna's smile returned, and they went back into the room, tearing into their suitcases and digging out their bathing suits. They grabbed towels and after a quick stop at the Griffins' room next door to let them know where they were going, they rushed down to the beach. 

Luna dropped her towel as soon as they found a cluster of free beach chairs, and took off for the water. 

"Really?" Clarke asked, but she was smiling.

"Let her be," Lexa said. "I think she might be part mermaid. If she isn't regularly submerged in water, she might shrivel up and blow away."

"I thought it was turning into sea foam," Clarke said. 

"Right," Lexa said. "Anyway, there's nothing stopping us from following her." But she took the time to spread her towel over one of the chairs and pulled a tube of sunscreen from the little bag she'd brought down with her, slathering it over every inch of exposed skin, because there was no way she was going to turn into a photo op for any little girls and their pet aliens. "Can you...?"

Clarke took the tube and got Lexa's back, then turned for Lexa to do the same. Lexa would make sure that Luna covered herself in a little bit; her olive skin could probably withstand a little more exposure before she started to burn than their paler complexions. 

That bit of business taken care of, Lexa grabbed Clarke's hand and tugged her toward the water, dodging between blankets and towels and kids building sandcastles to catch up with Luna, who was doing her best impression of a dolphin, diving through the waves as they tumbled toward shore. 

She turned to look at them when they reached her, strands of hair plastered to her face. She shoved them back, grinning. "I probably should have tied my hair back first," she admitted. Lexa pulled a hair tie from around her wrist and handed it to her, and Luna quickly wound her hair back in a messy bun. "This is amazing," she said. "The water is so nice." 

It was. Warm, but not so warm that it wasn't a refreshing respite from the sun beating down. All around them, people jumped and swam and rode the waves on body boards. Farther down the beach there were surfers, in their own area where they wouldn't crash into hapless swimmers who got in the way of their trip toward shore. 

"Do you think we could learn how to surf?" Lexa asked. "I would say I've always wanted to, but I never really thought about it. Now that we're here, though, it seems like it would be silly not to at least try." 

"The hotel probably has lessons you can sign up for," Clarke said. 

" _We_ can sign up for," Lexa corrected, nudging her.

Clarke made a face at her, but it slipped into a smile. "Fine. _We_ can sign up for. There's paddle boarding, too, which seems a little less..." she searched for the right word, finally setting on, "intense. I'd like to try that."

"Of course," Lexa agreed. It was only fair. "What about snorkeling?"

"There's definitely snorkeling," Clarke said. "I'm sure there's some kind of guidebook or brochure when we get back to the room. We can look at it tonight."

They stayed in the water until they were waterlogged and exhausted, then dragged themselves back up the beach and collapsed into their chairs. Lexa handed Luna the sunscreen, making sure to get her back, while Clarke went to a little stand on the edge of the beach and came back with three shaved ices. "I guessed at the flavors," she said, handing them out. "We can always share."

"I don't want your cooties," Luna joked, but stole a bite from each of their cones anyway. 

They stayed on the beach until their stomachs were growling too loudly to ignore, then met up with the Griffins for dinner. Mr. Jake had brought the guidebook Clarke had assumed would exist to dinner, and they all went through it, picking activities they were interested in and stopping at the concierge desk on their way back to make the reservations. 

Once back in their room, Lexa called dibs on the first shower, her skin itching from the layer of salt and sand that still clung to it despite a dousing in an outdoor shower. She considered, just for a second, inviting Clarke to join her, but she didn't want to make things awkward for Luna, who she was determined wasn't going to be made to feel like a third wheel, despite her predictions.

When they were all clean and in pajamas, they flipped on the TV, too exhausted from a day of travel and swimming to do anything else. Lexa tried to stay awake, knowing she should try to set her internal clock to island time, but she didn't even make it to double Jeopardy before sleep sucked her down.


	2. Chapter 2

Clarke woke up slowly, stretching then relaxing, curling herself around Lexa. She eased up the hem of Lexa's shirt and slipped her hand underneath, her palm sliding over her belly and down, her fingers tucking into the waistband of her shorts before she remembered where they were, and that they weren't alone.

Except when she lifted her head from her pillow, the bed beside them was empty, the sheets and blankets flipped back into place. Clarke listened and didn't hear her in the bathroom, either. Maybe she should have been concerned, but Luna was a big girl and able to take care of herself, and how lost could she get on an island, anyway? Probably she'd just gone to get breakfast, or for a walk on the beach or something. Maybe she'd gone for an early morning swim; she might consider it habit, considering the early morning practices she'd been doing at school to prepare her for the possibility of swimming at the collegiate level. 

Lexa stirred, pressing her hips back into Clarke's, practically grinding against her, and Clarke didn't need any more encouragement than that. She slid her hand down into Lexa's shorts, fingers dipping between her legs and into the slick heat of her that made Clarke smirk and wonder what she'd been dreaming. She kissed the back of Lexa's shoulder and nape of her neck and the hollow behind her ear, taking things slow but not too slow because she didn't know how much time they had before Luna came back. Lexa reached back, her fingers digging into Clarke's thigh as her hips jerked, and Clarke could feel the flush creeping across her skin as she got closer, and closer still, and finally her breath caught and her legs clamped around Clarke's hand as she muffled a final satisfied groan in her pillow.

Clarke couldn't help feeling an intense satisfaction, even though her own body ached with wanting (not for long, she knew, but Lexa at least needed the chance to remember how to breathe). Not so long ago, something like this would never have happened, because the instant Lexa regained even a hint of consciousness, she would have been on alert, knowing she was somewhere different, with unknown threats potentially lurking in every corner. At the very least, she would have needed reassurance that Luna wasn't there, but that she was okay, and even then Lexa would have been tense, worried that Luna would come back and walk in on them. 

The fact that she'd just relaxed into it was nothing short of a miracle... even if Clarke wasn't entirely sure what it meant. Maybe Lexa had just been mostly asleep, or so jetlagged she didn't think about all of the things she normally would have... but Clarke thought (or maybe just hoped) that she'd finally reached a point where she trusted Clarke enough to have already assessed the situation and deemed it safe before initiating. Which she had, mostly. Maybe not to the extent Lexa would have, but she also didn't perceive threats in the quantity and variety that Lexa did. 

Lexa rolled over, nuzzling against Clarke's neck before meeting her lips and kissing her, soft and slow and sweet. "Morning," she whispered, her voice almost a purr. 

"Morning," Clarke murmured back, meeting her lips again. "Luna's already up..."

Lexa lifted her head to look at the other bed, a smile curving her lips. "Good," she said. "Otherwise I would never hear the end of it."

Clarke laughed softly, only to have it cut short as it turned to a gasp, and then a moan as Lexa's long fingers settled between her legs, setting her nerves on fire. Her fingers clenched in Lexa's hair and the back of her shirt, and she smothered the sounds she was making against Lexa's mouth, and then her shoulder when it got too hard to breathe, not wanting to risk the possibility of her parents overhearing. At home she had a good idea of what level of noise she could get away with; here the walls might be thinner, and she didn't want to take any chances. 

"Lexa," she hissed, panting against her sweat-damp skin. "God... oh god..." Her eyes squeezed shut and she shuddered her way through her climax, relaxing her grip when her muscles went lax. She cracked her eyes open and saw Lexa's face, looking adoring and smug in about equal measure. 

They gave themselves a few minutes, then Lexa picked up her phone to check the time. A piece of paper fluttered to the floor, and Clarke leaned over the edge of the bed to grab it, nearly toppling out of it in the process. Lexa grabbed her and hauled her back, looking at the note curiously.

_Went for a walk. Meet me on the lanai when you're ready. – L_

Clarke bit her lip to keep from smiling. "In other words, she knew what we were likely to get up to when we saw she wasn't there and wasn't going to come back until she knew it was safe."

Lexa made a face. "Are we really that predictable?" she asked, but the way her lips twisted said she already knew the answer. For a second something dark flickered in her eyes, but Clarke could practically see her grabbing it – whatever it was – and stuffing it down. 

"We should get up and go meet her," Clarke said. "We don't know how long she's been waiting." 

Lexa nodded, and they got up and dressed and went to meet Luna, who was basking in a sunbeam wearing a big floppy hat Clarke knew she hadn't owned at the outset of the trip, sipping orange juice and picking at a plate of fresh fruit. She smiled when she saw them, nudging chairs away from the table for them to sit in. "What do you think?" she asked, touching the hat's brim. "Is it me?"

"Definitely," Clarke said. It really did suit her... at least this new, relaxed, easygoing version of her that proximity to surf and sand brought out. "Ooh, we need to get Hawaiian shirts. I'm pretty sure they won't let you off the island without at least one." 

"I'm okay with that," Luna said. "Not leaving the island."

Clarke felt Lexa tense where their knees were pressed against each other, and she reached with one hand to soothe her and the other to pluck a piece of fruit from the plate. Luna pushed it towards them, making it clear she was willing to share. "I think Miss – your mom would have something to say about that," she said.

"Good riddance?" Luna suggested, and Lexa scowled. Luna rolled her eyes. "Lighten up, Lexa," she said. "I'm kidding. Anyway, we've been here for less than a day. Maybe I'll be tired of it by the time we leave."

"Maybe," Lexa said, but they all knew it for the lie it was.

* * *

The days passed too quickly, with bursts of activity and long stretches of doing nothing much, but in the best possible way. Luna went for a walk every morning, leaving Clarke and Lexa with a little time to themselves, which they took full advantage of... except for the morning after the day they tried surfing, when they both woke up sore in places they hadn't even known they had muscles. Lexa had loved it – Clarke not so much – but even Lexa was willing to admit that it wasn't worth the pain afterward to take another lesson. If she was able to do it frequently enough to get past the pain, she would have, but it wasn't worth wincing with every step when they only had a little over a week. Paddle boarding turned out to be not as easy as Clarke thought it would be, but it was less taxing, or at least she was able to laugh the next day without groaning from the pain in her abs. 

Snorkeling had been amazing, and they'd had to all but drag Luna out of the water. Every day she seemed to settle more and more into the island routine, and now that their trip was drawing to an end, Lexa could feel a pit forming in her stomach. 

"What's wrong?" Clarke asked one morning, tucking a lock of hair behind Lexa's ear. "You're frowning."

Lexa pressed her lips together, tempted to tell Clarke it was nothing, she was fine, but they didn't lie to each other, for one, and Clarke wouldn't believe her for another. She didn't know if she'd gotten that bad at hiding what she was thinking and feeling, or if Clarke had gotten that good at reading her. Either way, it was easier to tell her than to try to pretend. 

"I'm worried she's going to be miserable when we go back," Lexa said. "She's happy here. Happier than I've ever seen her. Or," she swallowed, "that one of these mornings she'll go for a walk and... not come back."

For a second, Clarke looked almost amused, until she realized that Lexa was serious. "Where would she go?" she asked. "We're on an island, and I don't think it's that easy to get off it." 

Lexa nodded, but she knew Clarke underestimated how resourceful Luna could be. Or how resourceful she herself could be, if she leaned back into the training of her childhood. They'd been taught to survive at all costs, after all. 

"Anyway," Clarke said, "she has to know if she didn't come back, my parents would call the police or whatever and have them find her. And that they wouldn't leave here until they did." 

Lexa nodded again, wondering if Luna _did_ know that. She didn't know the Griffins as well as Lexa did, obviously, but it had been over a year now since Luna had come back into her life, and a little less than a year since she'd first been introduced to Clarke's family. And in the six months – had it really only been six months? – since Mr. Jake's heart attack, she'd gotten to know them better as they'd insisted on involving her in more family activities. So she _should_ know that they wouldn't leave without her.

Maybe she was counting on that?

Or maybe Lexa was worrying for nothing. 

"We'll go find her," Clarke said. "So you can see she hasn't run off."

They got up, and found Luna at a table with Clarke's parents, perusing the breakfast menu. She looked up and smiled when they approached. "We have company," she said. Although they'd had most dinners and many lunches together, Dr. Abby and Mr. Jake had been taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep in more mornings than not, so they'd been on their own for most breakfasts. 

They took their seats, with Lexa between Clarke and Luna as usual, and Lexa slid her foot over to nudge Luna's. Luna looked at her, one eyebrow slightly raised, and Lexa gave a tiny shrug. Luna's smile slipped, just a fraction, but Lexa shook her head. _Not now._ Luna's gaze stayed fixed on her for another few seconds, but then their server approached, and she looked back at the menu to confirm her selection for the morning.

They didn't get a moment alone until that evening, when Clarke decided she wanted a little time to herself to do some drawing. She'd brought her sketchbook along but had barely touched it the entire trip. They left her to it, heading down to the beach, which had mostly cleared for the day, and walked along the surf, the waves lapping at their toes and swirling around their ankles.

"What?" Luna asked, the question abrupt but her tone soft, concerned rather than demanding. 

"You don't want to leave," Lexa said, part question, part accusation. 

Luna looked around, then back at Lexa. "Do you?"

"Yes," Lexa said firmly. "This isn't... real life."

"I know," Luna said. "That's why I like it."

They kept walking, lost in their own thoughts for a few moments before Luna spoke again. "It's not that I'm not grateful," she said. "For everything I have. For everything Miss Becca – Mom –" She rolled her eyes before Lexa could say, _See? I told you so. It's not that easy._ "—and you and the Griffins have done for me. Have given me. I am. It's... more than I ever expected to have. But it's still..." She frowned, searching for the right words, and Lexa waited, knowing that trying to rush her would only make things worse. "It's still... too close," Luna finally said. "Like everyone knows my history. Our history. Knows who we are – or thinks they do – and where we came from and what we've been through and... and there's no escaping it. Here... I'm not that person. Or I am, but... only to myself. Only to you. To everyone else, I'm just any other seventeen-year-old girl."

Lexa could understand that. It wasn't hard to imagine how nice it must feel to be able to shrug off a history of trauma and just _be_ for once. She'd had moments like that – far more of them than Luna had, thanks to Clarke, who had never looked at her as anything but another girl, more like her than not, even after she knew the truth. But eventually she had found out, and eventually, the past would come back to haunt Luna, even here. 

It always did.

She didn't have to say it for Luna to read it on her face, and they both sighed. "It's just nice," Luna said finally. "And it's peaceful. No bickering kids, no annoying bosses, no chore chart..." 

Lexa snorted. "Can't argue with you there," she said. "But it's only for another year." Which was something else she wasn't ready to deal with but couldn't stop thinking about. They only had one year of high school left, and then... she didn't know. College, she assumed, but where? There was basically no chance that they would end up together, and what would that do to the bonds that they'd formed, or re-formed? 

"Maybe I'll come back," Luna said wistfully. "There are colleges here." 

Lexa felt the words like a punch to the gut, even though she should have seen them coming. "Do they offer athletic scholarships?" she asked. "Who would they even compete against?"

Luna tipped her head, considering. "You have a point," she said. "I guess there are plenty of schools near beaches on the mainland, too." 

"There are," Lexa said, more sharply than she meant to.

Luna looked at her. "You're not going to lose me again," she said, slipping her arm around Lexa. "No matter how much distance there is between us. I found you once, and I'll find you again. I'll always find you." 

"I'd rather you didn't have to," Lexa said softly, her voice choked with tears she was trying not to shed. 

Luna frowned, biting her lower lip. "I can't promise we'll always be close – physically close – but you're my sister. You're the only person who will ever really understand me. All of me. That's not a bond that can be broken, by time or distance or anything else. You'll always have me, and I'll always have you. That's the one thing I'm sure of."

Lexa sighed. "I'm glad one of us is."

Luna stopped walking, turning to look her in the eyes. "This isn't just about me, is it?" she asked. "This is about Clarke."

Lexa shrugged, then nodded. "Maybe," she said. "A little."

Luna started to roll her eyes but stopped herself. "You're worried about what will happen if you go to different schools?" It was a question, but not really. "Have you talked to her about it?"

"We've talked about places we'd like to go," Lexa said. "Or she's talked, mostly. I don't..." Lexa sighed, leaning into Luna. "The future is still hard for me to believe in," she said. "Even after all these years."

Luna pulled her into a hug, and for a while they just stayed like that, until the urge to move again became overwhelming. "You'll figure it out," she said. "Even if you end up at different schools for a while... you'll figure it out."

"How do you know?" Lexa asked. "How can you be so sure?"

Luna shrugged. "You love each other. You love each other as much as you love yourselves. More, sometimes. That's not something that just... goes away. The way you look at each other... it's obvious you would do anything for one another. And it's not like you haven't been through shit together before."

"But that's just it," Lexa said. "We've been through shit _together_. What if we end up on opposite sides of the country or something? What if... what if she realizes I'm not the only girl in the world she could love?"

"You think she doesn't already know that?" Luna asked. "She _could_ love anyone. She _loves_ you." 

"Until she doesn't," Lexa said. 

Luna snorted. "You really think that's going to happen?"

"Nothing lasts forever," Lexa said. It was one of the things they'd been taught. Only hold on to something or someone for as long as they were useful, because nothing lasted forever. 

"Maybe not," Luna said, "but you can sure as hell try."

* * *

The morning they were scheduled to leave, they all got up together to go for a walk, taking one last look at the placed that had more than lived up to the promise of paradise. Clarke laced her fingers through Lexa's and understood the sadness in her smile when she looked at her. Tomorrow they would be home again, back to living in separate houses and having separate lives, no matter how closely entwined they were. They would have to get up and go to summer jobs, fitting in time for each other around them, and around family obligations. It was just a taste of what was to come, as senior year approached and college loomed. 

They didn't know what the future would bring. Every time Clarke tried to talk about it, Lexa shut down, and Clarke dropped the subject. Eventually they would have to deal with it. Eventually they would have to face reality head-on. 

But not here. Not now. Not today. 

Today, they could just be.


End file.
